May 28-June 3, 2023

Weather | 5/28, 50°, 81° | 5/29, 52°, 85° | 5/30, 53°, 86° | 5/31, 61°, 87° | 6/1, 62°, 90° | 6/2, 63°, 87° | 6/3, 60°, 90° |

• Sunday, 5/28: Garlic Harvest Begins
  
  • Mary cut scapes from the garlic. It's all drying out and ready for harvest.
    
  • She pulled the Music Pink and German Extra Hardy garlic varieties from the far garden. All of the bulbs look very good. These two varieties go bad early, so they're the ones I use to make garlic wine, which we use for cooking.
    
  • Later in the day, we hung the garlic in rafters of the machine shed, where they'll dry throughout the summer.
    
  • I whacked, mowed, and mulched really tall grass in the eight-foot wide strip east of the far garden. The grass mulch went into the newly dug row where Mary removed garlic, today (see photos, below). Sweet potatoes will go into that row.
    
  • Jeff Olsen keeps sending me editorials I wrote and letters to the editor attacking me when Marvin Windows tried to move the county seat from Roseau, MN to Warroad by offering $4 million to Roseau County to build a new courthouse. It's ancient history to me. Jeff seems enamored with it.
    
  • I found Uncle John's obituary online. I didn't realize he was in the military during World War II, but it makes sense, accounting for his age at that time.
    
  • Bill sent Mary a video link detailing LeVar Burton's Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony. It's quite good.

Area I mowed east of the far garden.

Mulch on row where Mary pulled garlic.

• Monday, 5/29: Memorial Day
  
  • Mary pulled two more garlic varieties...Siberian and Georgian Crystal. So far, not a single garlic bulb is bad and they're all bigger than they were last year. In the evening prior to sunset, we hung them from the rafters of the machine shed.
  • I whacked down grass/weeds around the Grimes and Esopus apple trees. New thistle plants are extremely juicy. They splattered my face with green goo dots.
    
  • I culled small fruit from the Grimes Golden apple tree, then sprayed it three times with kaolin clay. It's now very white. Mary says it looks like a fake white Christmas tree.
    
  • I finished whacking and mowing the east side of the far garden, while continuing to put grass mulch on a former garlic row.
    
  • The ratty pull cord on the mower finally broke, today. I repaired it with a stout piece of cord.
  • We watered the near garden plants and small apple trees ahead of heat into the 90s expected for later this week. The Illinois extension agent in the Quincy newspaper says the region is in a drought.
    
    
• Tuesday, 5/30: Spinach Harvest
  
  • When Mary opened the living room curtains for the morning, she saw a pair of fighting male hummingbirds.
  • Mary harvested spinach before it bolted and processed seven small bags for the freezer. She'll use it for minestrone soup. She said wasps were very friendly with her as she picked spinach leaves. They are probably the reason why cabbage worms aren't eating up leaves in the near garden.
    
  • I smashed aphids, aphid eggs, and a couple ants on the tip of emerging leaves on the Porter's Perfection apple tree.
  • My second tub of radishes are all leaf and not much root. It's too hot for them and they're starting to bolt.
    
  • I whacked, mowed, and put grass mulch on former garlic rows in the far garden. Today, I finished outside of the north end and started up the west side of the garden.
    
  • Mary pulled the last two garlic varieties, which were Samarkand and Shvelisi. These are the best tasting varieties and they store very well. In the evening, we hung these in the machine shed.
    
  • Jeff Olsen called and told me he screwed up. He delved too much into the Roseau County Courthouse battle in the 1990s in the story about me and the newspaper's owner, who gets a half-page ad every week from Marvin Windows, told him that she didn't want to print the article. He's going to take all of the Marvin Windows stuff out and redo the article. He sent me the longest text in history...copy of that entire write-up.
    
  • I sprayed the bottom third of the Granny Smith apple tree with three coats of kaolin clay. It looks odd (see photo, below).
  • Elderberry flowers are in bloom (see photo, below).
  • Mary picked five cherries. It's a sparse beginning, but many more will ripen, soon.
    
  • Mary and I watered the small cherry trees and near garden plants.

Elderberry flowers next to the lilac bush.

Kaolin clay on bottom third of Granny.

• Wednesday, 5/31: The Raccoons That Roared
  
  • I picked cherries and collected about a half of a quart bag for the freezer.
    
  • I can't reach the ripe cherries high on the big cherry tree. Remembering online directions I saw last year for making a fruit picker out of a plastic pop bottle attached to a long pole, I drove to Lewistown and bought two small diet Cokes for the bottles. I also bought two 5-gallon cans of mower gas.
  • We could use rain. The last rain we received was on May 16th. We only saw 1.64 inches, when we usually get 5-6 inches in May. Our ground is parched and the gravel road is very dusty. I watched rain fall southwest of us and even heard thunder from that small storm. But, the rain went on by us to the west, heading south to north.
  • We had an evening meal of a large salad featuring lettuce, spinach, and radishes from the garden and sliced up hard boiled eggs from our hens...a very economical meal. Afterwards, we enjoyed a bottle of blackberry wine bottled a year and a day ago. It's extremely good.
    
  • On the last dog walk, we heard a growl north of the house, so after putting the dogs inside, we investigated. As we walked to the chicken coop and I shined a flashlight about, snarling and growling came from the trees near Frog Pond. There were even loud grunts and sharp squeals that raised our hackles. It kind of reminded me of bear noises. We closed all chicken coop windows. I looked up the sound that fighting raccoons make and that's what we heard. They make over 50 vocalizations. I'm glad we have a stout chicken coop.
    
    
• Thursday, 6/1: Mowing & Cherry Picking
  
  • Mary mowed about half to two-thirds of the inside of the far garden. She finished mulching the near garden and worked on far garden mulching.
  • I carved out a hole and slices in a 12-ounce plastic pop bottle and taped it on the top of a peeled persimmon pole. Now, while on the eight-foot step ladder, I can reach to the top of the big cherry tree. At first, I sliced up a cherry while removing it from the tree. So, I taped all cut edges with black electrical tape, making it work much better.
  • I picked cherries all day. There are now three quart bags of pitted cherries in the freezer.
  • Mary and I heard chimney swifts all day.
  • HERE is a link to a WGEM story about how the Lewis County (where we live) ag community is concerned about the effect of our spring drought on crops.
    
    
• Friday, 6/2: The Sting
  
  • I made waffles, the first of which we enjoyed with strawberries. Prior to making waffles, I made a half pint of my syrup. It took 10 minutes. By making smaller batches of syrup, we avoid mold issues.
    
  • I spent all day picking more cherries, adding two and a third bags to the freezer total of a little over five bags. Bug-infested and bird-chewed cherries are fewer this year. At one point a woodpecker lit in the tree above me. I hollered, "Get out of my tree," and it flew away. My homemade cherry picker works well (see photos, below). I'm getting more fruit high on the tree with it.
  • I picked a handful of ripe cherries off the sweet cherry tree. Mary and I each tried one. It was marvelous.
    
  • Mary mowed in the far garden, but got rained out. The rain was unmeasurable, but enough to dampen the grass when it's collected in a lawn mower bag.
  • We had several thunderstorms all around us, but not much for us. Lewistown, just five miles north, received 0.6 inches of rain, but not us. We watched two storms dumping rain just north of us.
    
  • Mary stepped out of the chicken coop after putting chickens away this evening and got hit in her left hand with a bumblebee sting. She never saw the bee, but it left a big hole and felt like someone stabbed her with a knife and broke every bone in her ring finger. Her whole hand swelled up so much she couldn't bend it. She rushed inside, put baking soda paste on the sting, and took three Benadryl pills.
    
  • I finished cherry picking, then ran around to get all of the remaining chores done, which mainly involved watering garden plants and small cherry trees.

Reaching into the tree with my cherry picker.

The other end of the cherry picker at work.

Cut out of plastic bottle wrapped in electrical tape.

The result: a pie cherry and a safe body.

• Saturday, 6/3: Bees, Butterflies, & Cherries
  
  • Persimmon trees are blooming and their blossoms are full of bees and butterflies. Several butterflies visited me while I played monkey in the top of the big cherry tree.
    
  • Except for some evening chores, Mary stayed in for most of today. Her bee-stung hand swelled up into her forearm. Sometimes it itches. She's using Benadryl, Tylenol, and ice to keep it at bay. Get outside and use it while watering the garden and it swells back up. Online research this morning (6/4) revealed that the most painful bee sting in the world is from a female carpenter bee. We have lots of them. Mary thinks that might be the bee that stung her.
    
  • I built a shorter cherry picker, using my second plastic pop bottle and an old broom handle. It worked for a little while, until the electrical tape holding it on the handle gave way. I need to narrow the end where the bottle gets jammed onto the handle.
  • I picked and pitted five quarts of pie cherries. We now have 10 quarts and a third of 2023 cherries in the freezer. Today, I used the orchard ladder and got high inside the top of the big cherry tree. I broke a top branch at its crotch in the process...bo-o-o!
  • Mary ordered eight books for her birthday, which was May 27th. We held off for a month on buying anything other than basics, since there was a chance Social Security checks might not go out in June if a debt reduction deal wasn't worked out, but legislation went through and President Biden signed the bill today.